Modern representation of the Lo Shu square as a

magic square

Lo Shu Square (simplified Chinese: 洛书;

traditional Chinese: 洛書; pinyin: luò shū;
also written 雒書; literally: Luo (River)
Book/Scroll), or the Nine Halls Diagram
(simplified Chinese: 九宫图; traditional
Chinese: 九宮圖; pinyin: jiǔ gōng tú), is the
unique normal magic square of order three
(every normal magic square of order three
is obtained from the Lo Shu by rotation or
reflection). The Lo Shu is part of the
legacy of ancient Chinese mathematical
and divinatory (cf. the I Ching 易經)
traditions, and is an important emblem in
Feng Shui (風水), the art of geomancy
concerned with the placement of objects
in relation to the flow of qi (氣) "natural
energy".

History
A Chinese legend concerning the pre-
historic Emperor Yu (夏禹) tell of the Lo
Shu, often in connection with the Yellow
River Map (Hetu) and 8 trigrams. In
ancient China there was a huge deluge: the
people offered sacrifices to the god of one
of the flooding rivers, the Luo river (洛河),
to try to calm his anger. A magical turtle
emerged from the water with the curiously
unnatural Lo Shu pattern on its shell:
circular dots representing the integers 1
through 9 are arranged in a three-by-three
grid.

Early records are ambiguous, referring to a

"river map", and date to 650 BCE, but
clearly refer to a magic square by 80 CE,
and explicitly give one since 570 CE.[1][2]
Recent publications have provided support
that the Lo Shu Magic Square was an
important model for time and space and
served as a basis for city planning, tomb
design, and temple design. The Magic
Square was used to designate spaces of
political and religious importance. [3]

The Lo Shu square on the back of a small turtle (in

the center), surrounded by the signs of the Chinese
zodiac and the Eight trigrams, all carried by a large
turtle (which, presumably, stands for the Dragon
horse that had earlier revealed the trigrams to Fu Xi).
This example drawn by an anonymous Tibetan
artist.
The odd and even numbers alternate in the
periphery of the Lo Shu pattern; the 4 even
numbers are at the four corners, and the 5
odd numbers (outnumbering the even
numbers by one) form a cross in the
center of the square. The sums in each of
the 3 rows, in each of the 3 columns, and
in both diagonals, are all 15 (the number of
days in each of the 24 cycles of the
Chinese solar year). Since 5 is in the
center cell, the sum of any two other cells
that are directly through the 5 from each
other is 10 (e.g., opposite corners add up
to 10, the number of the Yellow River Map
(河圖).
The Lo Shu is sometimes connected
numerologically with the Bagua (八卦 "8
trigrams"), which can be arranged in the 8
outer cells, reminiscent of circular trigram
diagrams. Because north is placed at the
bottom of maps in China, the 3x3 magic
square having number 1 at the bottom and
9 at the top is used in preference to the
other rotations/reflections. As seen in the
"Later Heaven" arrangement, 1 and 9
correspond with ☵ Kǎn 坎 "Water 水" and
☲ Lí 離 "Fire 火" respectively. In the "Early
Heaven" arrangement, they would
correspond with ☷ Kūn 坤 "Earth 地" and ☰
Qián 乾 "Heaven 天" respectively. Like the
Yellow River Map (河圖), the Lo Shu
square, in conjunction with the 8 trigrams,
is sometimes used as a mandalic
representation important in Feng Shui (風
水) geomancy.

See also
Associative magic square
Sator Square
Tetractys
Yellow River Map
Camunian rose

Notes
1. Cammann 1961
 2. Swaney, Mark. "Mark Swaney on the
History of Magic Squares" . Archived
from the original on 2004-08-07.
3. Schinz 1996

References
Cammann, Schuyler (Summer 1961).
"The Magic Square of Three in Old
Chinese Philosophy and Religion".
History of Religions. 1 (1): 37–80.
Schinz, Alfred (1996). The Magic
Square: Cities in Ancient China. Axel
Menges. ISBN 9783930698028.
Yoshio, Mikami (1913). The
Development of Mathematics in China
 and Japan. LCCN 61-13497 .

Further reading
Swetz, Frank J. (2008). The Legacy of
the Luoshu (2nd Rev ed.). A. K. Peters /
CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-56881-427-8.
Berglund, Lars (1990). The Secret of the
Luo Shu: Numerology in Chinese Art and
Architecture. Tryckbiten.
ISBN 9789162800680.

External links
Media related to Luoshu at Wikimedia
Commons
Lo Shu Square: Definition, Nature and
History
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Lo_Shu_Square&oldid=930131652"

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